America's Best Has Some Fun With Scott Walker's Super-Similar Campaign Logo
from the 'murica dept
Politics can be tricky territory for companies and brands to wade through. While some corporations have made notorious claims on political matters, and occasionally even get behind candidates, the vast majority of companies know that they're better off endorsing nobody and nothing. As Michael Jordan once famously put it when he'd been urged by a Democratic campaign to be more politically active: "Republicans buy sneakers, too."
That's what makes the reaction of America's Best, the eyeglass and contact-lens company, to Scott Walker using a logo for his campaign that is nearly identical to the company's so special. They didn't lose their minds. They didn't go trademark ballistic. They just had some fun with it.
Both Walker's campaign and America's Best Contacts and Eyeglasses feature a cartoonish, four-part American flag logo as the "E" in their names. The same flag icon is also their stand-alone logos when the text is removed.Here are the logos, Walker's first and America's Best second.
In a brief phone call on Monday, America's Best CEO Reade Fahs told Business Insider that his company wasn't taking sides in the presidential race. But he said he appreciates the Walker campaign approving of the design.
"We don't endorse presidential candidates, but we sure love it when they endorse us," he quipped.
So, yeah, they're the same. And it could have been very easy for the company at that point to completely flip out in anger, or to rush to assure everyone that it hadn't endorsed any political candidate for any political office. Instead, the CEO's calm and measured response was endearing. Not to mention the company's response on social media.
.@CNNPolitics We think @ScottWalker's logo is HILLARYous. #logogate https://t.co/1KJwxcmh0t
— America's Best (@Americas_Best) July 13, 2015
.@ScottWalker sure TRUMPed us by "borrowing" our logo. #logogate
— America's Best (@Americas_Best) July 13, 2015
We aren't the types to hide our logo under a BUSH. #logogate
— America's Best (@Americas_Best) July 13, 2015
And they go on and on like that on Twitter, making sure everyone knows the company isn't endorsing anyone, but likewise insisting the company isn't going to go legal on Walker's logo. In the meantime, rather than coming off like some kind of petty and frightened corporation by flipping out, America's Best engenders a fun, laid back, hip sensibility. You know, good public relations, which has us talking about how cool a move it is rather than having some legal filing buried in the news that nobody cares about. Well done all around.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: elections, logos, scott walker, trademark
Companies: america's best
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just blame it on the interns.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Just blame it on the interns.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Good for them!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]